Chapter Twenty-Four: Zero-Level Spells

“I succeeded?” Although Zhao Xu had already confirmed the outcome, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

“Halfway there.”

“Halfway?” Zhao Xu almost didn’t react—was the ceremony only half complete?

“It’s probably because you’re all projections. To truly finish, you'll need to wait for some future opportunity to become corporeal. Then you’ll truly acquire this ability. For now, it won’t affect you; it’s enough for memorizing spells.”

Only then did Zhao Xu relax, though the mention of becoming truly corporeal lingered in his mind.

It likely referred to the event a year from now, when everyone would traverse to Arthur. Zhao Xu had always harbored suspicions in his previous life, as did many Earthlings, who believed the game itself was a preliminary screening.

If six or seven billion Earthlings suddenly arrived in Arthur, even if the main material plane was vast and nearly boundless, it would still be difficult to manage such an abrupt influx of people.

Therefore, those players who had already interacted with Arthur were meant to be the vanguard, guiding the others. As for how TC managed to develop this game, firstly, all the content was defined and extrapolated by AI. Secondly, the arcane arts were rife with mind-manipulating spells, so that was hardly a problem.

Some even speculated that incarnations of deities had already visited Earth in the past year.

But none of this had anything to do with Zhao Xu. Even if he knew who the incarnations were, he would never risk befriending them or courting disaster.

He only needed to wait patiently.

As for the colossal meteor destined to destroy humanity that fell from the sky, whether it was mere coincidence or a deliberate arrangement, even after ten years, no one knew.

From the server opening on Monday night to the next Monday—a full seven days—the first mage in the game finally emerged.

Despite the widespread complaints from mage players about the complexity of their training, the fact that it took nearly seven days was beyond many people’s expectations.

Moreover, the power of level-one spells and the limited spell slots available to mages left those who understood the mechanics deeply disappointed.

Forum polls echoed this sentiment: every day, fewer new players chose the mage class, placing it near the bottom of the selection list.

And this was despite the traditional reverence for mages in online games.

No one realized that upon reaching level five, mages could rival, or even surpass, martial classes. At level ten, they would leave them far behind.

The environment in which players found themselves gave them no clue as to how high-level mages actually fought.

Other than browsing forums and maintaining a certain amount of exercise, Zhao Xu devoted most of his time to “Arthur.”

He had finally overcome the hurdles of memorizing basic models and various spellcasting gestures, reaching the stage where he could truly begin studying zero-level spells.

Compared to the player who first completed mage training, Zhao Xu’s progress was not far behind.

Each of the three level-one spells required twenty-four hours of study, excluding four hours of deep sleep per day. That meant three and a half days.

So, the first mage player completed model learning, spellcasting gestures, and the abilities of summoning a familiar and copying scrolls—all within three and a half days.

As for subsequent skill training, it was said that this player temporarily gave it up, planning to catch up later, just to secure the record of being first.

Everyone had witnessed that being the first to complete training—not just in all of Arthur, but even locally—earned rewards from the local guilds.

But things like halos or extra titles were absent.

Zhao Xu was also stuck for three and a half days on zero-level spells, not to mention that he no longer needed to learn the abilities of summoning a familiar and copying scrolls at all.

This made him realize the gap between himself and those truly gifted mage players.

Yet, those top talents who stood out early on—Zhao Xu rarely heard about them again later, including the player who first completed mage training.

Five resurrection stones were both a cause for hope and a poisonous distraction for players.

When it comes to gambling with one’s life, who could compare to a group that could be revived?

Lying at his desk, beside him the eternal glow of magical illumination, Zhao Xu rested his chin in one hand and turned the pages of “The Compendium of Zero-Level Spells” with the other.

From Read Magic to Mage Hand, there were nineteen zero-level spells—all spells that every apprentice mage should master. Some wild mages might miss a few.

But as long as you found the Mage Guild in a major city, copying these zero-level spells was no difficult task.

The spell Read Magic was one Zhao Xu had heard Antinoia mention from the very start.

After casting it, he could read arcane script without needing spell identification. Its duration was ten minutes per caster level.

Although Zhao Xu had not officially become a level-one mage, he could barely count as one. Thus, his spell lasted exactly ten minutes.

At a reading speed of one page per minute, it was just enough for ten pages.

If previous models were about defining concepts, the spells he was now learning were formulas for solving problems.

Transcribing a zero-level spell into a spellbook took only half a page—essentially, copying the model sufficed.

But in “The Compendium of Zero-Level Spells,” each spell occupied dozens of pages, filled with the experiences and philosophies of predecessors, as well as possible pitfalls.

Only now did Zhao Xu realize that the so-called twenty-four hours of study did not include the time spent reading these supplementary materials.

If a mage could not decode a spell in twenty-four hours, they would turn to predecessors’ notes or introductions, which were available in the Mage Guild’s library.

The compendium in Zhao Xu’s hands was such a book.

Otherwise, Antinoia would only have needed to provide him with nine and a half pages of spellbook.

A mage’s mark of having learned a spell was successfully transcribing it into their spellbook.

Once transcribed, the spell could be prepared the next day.

Thus, whether Zhao Xu could move on to the next stage of arcane study depended simply on when he could transcribe these nineteen zero-level cantrips into his mind.

Zero-level cantrips were the only spells Zhao Xu could transcribe without applying the stimulating ointment.

Level-one spells were different. Three jars of ointment, each worth fifty gold pieces and used to stimulate the mind, had already been placed on his desk by Antinoia while he was studying cantrips.

As far as he knew, any mage with a bit of alchemical skill could craft these ointments themselves, and the materials were never a limiting factor.

The materials used for simple spellbook transcription were likewise easy to obtain, and at higher levels, mages could conjure them with spells.

Aside from needing guidance from predecessors to learn spells, mages faced the fewest restrictions in other respects; at worst, they could just learn a feat to craft things themselves.